Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you, management. (Operator instructions) Our first question will come from the line of Steve Ferazani with Sidoti and Company. Please go ahead.
Steve Ferazani – Sidoti & Co.
Good morning, Chris. I got in a little bit late so I'm sorry if you've addressed some of the things I want to ask. On the cost side, you talked about potentially laying off some crews on the last conference call. It looks like costs didn't fall too much. Can you talk about that a little bit?
Chris Strong
Costs were down a little bit, Steve, but utilization fell more than I had expected, and as a result, the cost per day actually went up. So we were off a bit on that estimate as far as what we discussed on the last conference call.
Steve Ferazani – Sidoti & Co.
Okay. With the big acquisition in the Marcellus Shale acreage from – by XTO, I mean you guys had a pretty good relationship with those guys, you've done some deeper wells. I mean does this increase the opportunity for you to build some new rigs for Appalachia now?
Chris Strong
It may, but we are already drilling for so many different people. We are drilling over near the New Jersey border in the Marcellus, we are drilling in the center of the state already, and we are drilling for folks like Range over pretty much on the Ohio border. So we are drilling in the Marcellus probably 350 miles apart in different areas of this play right now.
Steve Ferazani – Sidoti & Co.
I guess what I'm asking in that question is other contracts like you announced in January probably the higher margin, higher horsepower type rig long-term type contracts.
Chris Strong
That's certainly what we are focused on. I am planning to spend a full week up there in May visiting with customers and we've certainly been visiting with them in the Dallas-Fort Worth area as well as Houston. So it's certainly in our plans to be more aggressive in that area and given all the acreage that's being acquired and what's happening to acreage prices up there, I just see a large demand for rigs in the very near future in that area.
Steve Ferazani – Sidoti & Co.
I guess this will probably be a difficult question to answer – sort of the timetable – we know a lot of the acreage acquisitions and such but I mean does it develop as slow as the Barnett did? Is this going to be a three- to five-year growth plan or are you looking at rigs to double in the next 18 months? Or can you give us some sort of perspective?
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